NEW ZEALAND FIRST MP Richard Prosser’s comments about young Muslim men from “Wogistan” and that they should be banned from air travel have created interest around the world.

Ethnic affairs minister Judith Collins said they could cause New Zealand “international embarrassment”.

Prosser, a list MP, is facing pressure to step down after his controversial comments in his regular column in Investigate magazine, which also saw him speak out against “twin evils of diversity and multiculturalism”.

The story has spread to the United States, United Kingdom and the Muslim world.

He was backed by his leader Winston Peters, who said there was an “element of truth” to Prosser’s comments and did not believe the MP should apologise.

In the article, Prosser said that while most Muslims were not terrorists, it was “undeniable” that “most terrorists are Muslims”.

His words were sparked by the confiscation of his pocket knife before boarding a flight.

He wrote that New Zealanders’ rights were being “denigrated by a sorry pack of misogynist trogolodytes from Wogistan, threatening our way of life and security of travel in the name of their stone age religion, its barbaric attitudes towards women, democracy, and individual choice”.

“If you are a young male, aged between say about 19 and about 35, and you’re a Muslim, or you look like a Muslim, or you come from a Muslim country, then you are not welcome to travel on any of the West’s airlines,” he wrote.

He has been condemned by MPs on all sides of the house.

Prosser has since attempted to defend his comments on Newstalk ZB, saying:

“Look, people can read things into it if they want.

“I have a particular style in my Investigate column which is, um, reasonably blunt, and I speak a lot of things that other people are talking about but won’t necessarily say.

“I don’t think it’s anything derogatory particularly, I don’t have any real time for the worst extreme elements of Islam who treat women in a poor fashion. So, I certainly think it’s appropriate for me to make those comments.”

He has previously gone on the record as saying the burqa should be banned and that dairy owners and taxi drivers should be able to carry guns.

Prosser is the second NZ First MP to come under fire recently, with Brendan Horan expelled from the party after issues regarding his late mothers bank account were made public.